National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

www.gov.uk/natural-england

1 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Introduction National Character Areas map

As part of Natural England’s responsibilities as set out in the Natural Environment White Paper1, Biodiversity 20202 and the European Landscape Convention3, we are revising profiles for England’s 159 National Character Areas (NCAs). These are areas that share similar landscape characteristics, and which follow natural lines in the landscape rather than administrative boundaries, making them a good decision-making framework for the natural environment.

NCA profiles are guidance documents which can help communities to inform theirdecision-making about the places that they live in and care for. The informationthey contain will support the planning of conservation initiatives at a landscape scale, inform the delivery of Nature Improvement Areas and encourage broader partnership working through Local Nature Partnerships. The profiles will also help to inform choices about how land is managed and can change.

Each profile includes a description of the natural and cultural features that shape our landscapes, how the landscape has changed over time, the current key drivers for ongoing change, and a broad analysis of each area’s characteristics and ecosystem services. Statements of Environmental Opportunity (SEOs) are suggested, which draw on this integrated information. The SEOs offer guidance on the critical issues, which could help to achieve sustainable growth and a more secure environmental future. 1 The Natural Choice: Securing the Value of Nature, Defra NCA profiles are working documents which draw on current evidence and (2011; URL: www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm80/8082/8082.pdf) 2 knowledge. We will aim to refresh and update them periodically as new Biodiversity 2020: A Strategy for England’s Wildlife and Ecosystem Services, Defra information becomes available to us. (2011; URL: www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/pb13583-biodiversity-strategy-2020-111111.pdf) 3 European Landscape Convention, Council of Europe We would like to hear how useful the NCA profiles are to you. You can contact the (2000; URL: http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Treaties/Html/176.htm) NCA team by emailing [email protected]

2 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Summary

The Melbourne Parklands NCA is located between the ancient forests of Commuter development pressures are likely to continue around the villages Needwood and Charnwood. The Trent Valley forms its northern and western and small settlements of Castle Donington, Repton and Melbourne, at the edge boundary, in a wide arc sweeping round from its confluence with the River Soar of the area. in the north-east, to Burton-upon-Trent in the south-west.

It is a landscape of rolling farmland, ancient and plantation woodland and, as the name suggests, a cluster of landscaped parklands with grand country houses, one of which, Calke Abbey, boasts a Grade II* listed historic park and garden. The park has also been designated a National Nature Reserve (NNR), and contains many notable ancient and veteran trees. One-quarter of the NCA is within The National Forest and 10 per cent is woodland.

The NCA is predominantly rural, although there are strong and often abrupt contrasts with the urban areas on its peripheries. The M1 and A42 cross the NCA and East Midlands Airport is sited on the central plateau in an otherwise undulating area.

It is an important area for water supply. Two valleys have been dammed to create large reservoirs. Both Foremark and Staunton Harold Reservoirs are supplied from the River Dove in the adjacent NCA. Outcrops of the Sherwood Sandstone Group form recharge areas to the Sherwood aquifer.

Most of the area is in agricultural use, with extensive areas under arable production, and mixed arable and pasture on the steeper ground. Siltstones and mudstones of the Mercia Mudstone Group in the east of the NCA produce a gently Click map to enlarge; click again to reduce. rolling lowland plateau of productive, reddish clay soils suitable for agriculture.

3 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Statements of Environmental Opportunity

■■ SEO 1: Manage the new planting of The National Forest and restore the characteristics of the historic parklands and woodlands. Conserve and manage the hedgerows and hedgerow trees, preserving the field patterns of early enclosures and maintaining the legacy of historic land use, bringing benefits for soil quality, biodiversity and recreation.

■■ SEO 2: Promote sustainable agricultural practices to help protect and manage areas of semi-natural habitat and, where appropriate, link these areas together to create a coherent and resilient habitat network.

■■ SEO 3: Protect the important water resource in the NCA to safeguard the quality of public, private and agricultural water supplies, and to improve its contribution to biodiversity and recreation.

■■ SEO 4: Protect and enhance the historic landscape character and historic ecclesiastical centres. Promote opportunities for high-quality, accessible green space, and for the interpretation of historical features, increasing opportunities for community engagement, access, recreation and Designed parkland avenues and parkland trees add to the wooded character. education.

4 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Description

Physical and functional links to other National Character Areas

The Melbourne Parklands National Character Area (NCA) is an undulating landscape that extends through South Derbyshire from the Staffordshire border in the west into Leicestershire in the east. There are long views out of the NCA, from the high ground near Foremark and Breedon over the Trent Valley Washlands NCA to the north. Carboniferous limestones form a broken ridge of hills, and Upper Carboniferous sandstones and mudstones underlie pronounced ridges that afford views into the neighbouring Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield NCA to the south.

The high ground of neighbouring Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield NCA and Charnwood NCA forms a watershed that is drained by streams that feed the rivers Trent and Soar that skirt the north and western boundaries of the Melbourne Parklands NCA. The plateau in the core of the NCA is dissected by narrow, north-flowing river valleys. Two valleys have been dammed to create large reservoirs that provide drinking water to over 80,000 people in Leicestershire and the surrounding area.

View across and out of the NCA from Breedon Hill with the quarry in the foreground. An outcrop of the Sherwood Sandstone Group extends towards the River Trent, In the distance, the control tower of East Midlands Airport just within the NCA and this serves as a recharge area for the deep Sherwood Sandstone aquifer, and the cooling towers of Ratcliffe on Soar power station in Leicestershire and the second most important aquifer in the UK. It is exploited by the brewing Nottinghamshire Wolds NCA. industry in Burton- upon-Trent, located in the neighbouring Trent Valley Washlands NCA.

5 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

The National Forest is creating new woodland within this and adjoining NCAs, building a strong woodland link with neighbouring Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield NCA and Charnwood NCA. The roadside vegetation that includes bracken, gorse, oak and ash, also visually links the parklands to these neighbouring NCAs.

Large quarries straddle the southern boundary of the NCA. Both Cloud Hill Quarry and Breedon Quarry are important sources of magnesium-rich dolomitic limestone or dolostone. The stone is used across the East Midlands as an aggregate for road dressing. Sandstones from the Sherwood Sandstone Group have been widely used as a building stone, both within the NCA and in neighbouring NCAs, invoking a strong sense of place.

The M1 and A42 cross the NCA, and East Midlands Airport is sited on a natural plateau in an otherwise undulating area.

Foremark Reservoir. One of two reservoirs in the NCA that supply drinking water to Leicestershire and the wider area.

6 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Key characteristics

■■ An undulating landform of Sherwood Sandstone in the west of the NCA, ■■ The major Mercian ecclesiastical centres at Repton and Breedon-on- with Carboniferous limestones forming a broken ridge of hills in the the-Hill are rich in Christian and Viking heritage, and prominently-sited east and extending south-eastwards. Flatter areas around Ticknall, Calke churches invoke a historic feel to the NCA. Breedon-on-the-Hill was the Abbey and Dimminsdale. site of a Saxon monastery, with Saxon carvings preserved in the church. ■■ In the east of the NCA the less resistant Triassic siltstones and mudstones ■■ Large, nucleated villages – the most remote built of attractive, mellow of the Mercia Mudstone Group produce a gently rolling lowland yellow brick, with a few surviving timber-framed buildings. plateau of productive, reddish clay soils suitable for agriculture. The ■■ Small, clustered red-brick villages retain a rural character, but those less permeable soils are typically used for pasture (and, historically, for close to the River Trent valley, including Melbourne, Repton and Castle dairying), the drier soils are for cereals and potatoes, and the dark loams Donington, are larger. around Melbourne are for market gardening. ■■ East Midlands Airport, with its important passenger and freight terminal, is ■■ The Breedon Hill Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) comprises one of located in the east of the NCA and serviced by the A42 and M1. the largest areas of species-rich limestone grassland in Leicestershire. ■■ Alluvium deposits and river terraces are evident between Hemington and Lockington, in the north-east of the NCA. ■■ Differential erosion by dynamic river systems has dissected the plateau and created narrow-sided, north-flowing river valleys. Two valleys have been dammed to form large reservoirs. ■■ Large landscaped parks with grand country houses and mixed woodlands, and remnant orchards associated with market gardening. ■■ New woodland planting associated with The National Forest. ■■ There are many scattered, sometimes ancient, hedgerow trees in the core area. By contrast, low and well-trimmed hedges are found around some arable fields in peripheral areas. Triassic siltstones and mudstones of Hedgerow trees, in the wooded ■■ Extensive areas of unimproved pasture and remnant acid grassland the Mercia Mudstone Group, produce estatelands add to the sense of with heathy scrub persist, with woodland on some steep, undulating a gently rolling plateau of productive, wooded character and enclosure in the reddish, clay soils suitable for agriculture. surrounding farmland. sandstone slopes.

7 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Melbourne Parklands today

The parklands rise abruptly out of the Trent Valley, where the undulating mixed farmland conceals woodlands, reservoirs, landscaped parklands with grand country houses, and scattered villages.

The plateau in the core of the NCA is dissected by narrow, north-flowing river valleys, with stands of ash and alder in the valley bottoms, which are occasionally associated with rich, lime-loving ground flora including giant bellflower and hart’s-tongue fern. Two valleys have been dammed to create large reservoirs, at Staunton Harold and Foremark, which provide public drinking water and valuable habitats. Oak-birch woodland and bur-reed swamp occur around the margins of Foremark Reservoir. Enclosing the reservoirs and parks are substantial areas of mixed woodland, some ancient. These tend to be located on ridge-tops and steeper slopes associated with poorer soils.

The parkland and woodland are mutually reinforcing. Designed parkland avenues, parkland trees, hedgerow trees and remnant orchards in the surrounding farmland all add to the sense of wooded character and enclosure. Although it is better known The proliferation of country houses reached a peak in the 17th and 18th centuries. The for festivals and motor racing, Donington Park has an SSSI that comprises a medieval parkland landscapes make a major contribution to the area both in terms of landscape character and visitors to the NCA. park containing a fine population of ancient oak trees. Calke Park (designated as both an SSSI and a National Nature Reserve (NNR)) includes two veteran oak trees that are over 1,000 years old. One-quarter of the NCA is covered by The National of the broad plateau in the core of the NCA is in agricultural use, with extensive Forest, and new woodland planting accentuates the rolling landform, further areas under arable production (with mixed arable and pasture on the steeper enhances the traditional wooded character of the NCA, and strengthens its links ground). Within the landscape, there are extensive areas of unimproved pasture with neighbouring Charnwood and Needwood forests. and remnant acid grassland, dominated by brown bent, wavy hair-grass, sheep’s fescue and heath grass. Heath bedstraw and harebell are also prevalent. Breedon The rolling, undulating landscape of the Melbourne Parklands is predominantly Hill SSSI comprises one of the largest areas of species-rich limestone grassland in a tranquil, agricultural landscape that retains a historic estate influence. Most Leicestershire, and is representative of such grassland habitats in the Midlands.

8 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

There are a number of disused quarries that now provide habitats for flora and invertebrates. Ticknall Quarries SSSI comprises a range of habitats, including open water, ash woodland and flower-rich calcareous grassland. Dimminsdale SSSI is a former lead and limestone mine, and now supports nationally important heath grassland and woodland.

Contrasting strongly with surrounding valleys and urban areas, the tranquil, agricultural landscape of the Melbourne Parklands attracts visitors seeking quiet recreation. The reservoirs at Staunton Harold and Foremark also offer a range of leisure opportunities.

The sense of place and tranquillity within the NCA changes at the eastern and western boundaries of the NCA, with the juxtaposition of the urban fringes of Burton-on-Trent and Swadlincote in neighbouring NCAs in the west, and East Midlands Airport, with its passenger and freight handling centre, in the east. The Disused mineral railway lines provide opportunities for recreation. National Cycle M1 and A42 also cross the NCA. Route 6 skirts the boundary of Cloud Wood in the south of the NCA.

The settlement pattern comprises predominantly large, nucleated villages, those furthest from the Trent Valley built of attractive, mellow yellow brick, with a few surviving timber-framed buildings. Settlements closest to the Trent Valley have been enlarged in recent times; Melbourne, Repton and Castle Donington are predominantly red brick, with local sandstone detailing and imported slate.

The area’s churches provide prominent historic landmarks, for example, the imposing church at Melbourne, which is one of the finest and most complete Twenty-five per cent of the NCA is Contrasting strongly with the urban Norman churches in England, and at Breedon-on-the-Hill, where the spectacularly within The National Forest. Woodland areas, the tranquil setting of Staunton planting is strengthening the landscape Harold Reservoir attracts visitors sited church overlooks cliffs created by quarrying. character of the NCA. seeking quiet recreation.

9 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

The landscape through time

The oldest rocks in the NCA occur as outcrops of hard Carboniferous limestone that were laid down in a warm, shallow sea around 345 to 326 million years ago, which were folded into a large anticline, and now form a broken ridge of hills.

The majority of the terrain of the Melbourne Parklands is dominated by Triassic rocks: sandstones and conglomerates of the Sherwood Sandstone Group, and red mudstones of the Mercia Mudstone Group. These rocks were deposited under arid, desert conditions. The Sherwood Sandstone Group was deposited by a major river that crossed England and originated in what is now northern France. The mudstones were wind-blown dust that settled on sun-baked mudflats when continental conditions prevailed around 248 to 200 million years ago. These have weathered to productive, reddish, clay soils, which underlie much of the undulating western half of Leicestershire. The Triassic sandstones form a recharge area for the deep aquifer in the east of the NCA.

The Millstone Grit Group rocks of the Melbourne area comprise mudstones and sandstones, and there are small outliers of Pennine Lower Coal Measures Calke Park, designated both an SSSI and an NNR is recognised internationally for wood around Melbourne and in the south of the NCA, near Swadlincote. pasture and parkland.

Superficial deposits are limited in extent, comprising a few areas of till in the extensively used as building stone. The Carboniferous Peak Limestone Group is tributary valleys to the rivers Trent and Soar. Alluvium deposits and river terraces regularly used as an aggregate, but historically it has been used extensively for are evident between Hemington and Lockington, in the north-east of the NCA. lime, mortar and (sporadically) as a building stone.

The rocks provide strong cultural associations, for example, the spectacularly There is scattered evidence of Mesolithic occupation in the Melbourne sited church at Breedon-on-the-Hill is built on an outcrop of Carboniferous Parklands, but this (and later Neolithic and bronze-age finds and sites) appears limestone on the site of an iron-age hill fort and, later, monastery. Sandstones to relate to activity spreading out from the Trent and Tame valleys. Clearance from the Millstone Grit and Sherwood Sandstone Groups have been of the area throughout the Iron Age and Roman period produced heathlands,

10 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

which established themselves over the glacial till soils. The first substantial The area has a long history of mixed farming, evident from the survival of pre- evidence of human influence comes from the Anglo-Saxon period. 18th century irregular pasture enclosures, and nationally-significant fragments of medieval ridge and furrow. The NCA contains a variety of fieldscapes, a Repton and Breedon-on-the-Hill were major ecclesiastical centres of the legacy of historic land uses that combine to produce a complex landscape. kingdom of Mercia in the 8th and 9th centuries, Repton was the seat of the Woodland provided sheltered grazing, fuel and timber for building. The villages Bishop of Mercia and the Mercian royal family established Repton Abbey. retained communal arable fields and common pasture into the 18th and 19th During the second half of the 9th century Vikings landed at Repton, having centuries. Melbourne and Castle Donington have seen continual expansion as sailed up the River Trent, and settled there, incorporating the abbey into their local market centres, to become commuter settlements more recently. Isolated fortifications. They chose nearby Ingelby as their burial site: it is the only known villages remain small, and where they are closely associated with major estates Scandinavian cremation cemetery in England. they are defined by the estate architecture (Ticknall is a good example).

The predominant pattern of nucleated settlement was established by the In the 18th century, lead extraction took place on a commercial scale at Earl end of the Anglo-Saxon period, the villages being dominated by their parish Ferrers’ Mine in Dimminsdale. At Ticknall, the limestones were exploited for churches and surrounded by open fields and commons, which extended lime on a scale that resulted in the construction of a tramway that linked the across most of the farmland in the medieval period. This period, and into the lime yard at Ticknall to the Ashby Canal. 14th century, also saw the spread of smaller scattered settlements amid the woodlands and heaths. In the early to mid 19th century, Samuel Robinson founded Melbourne’s market gardening enterprise and made ‘Robinson of Melbourne’ well known. In 1850, The Normans continued with the building of parish churches that had begun in 240 acres were under spade cultivation for the market, exploiting the rich England in the late Anglo-Saxon period, and Melbourne Parish Church is one of loams derived from an inlier of Millstone Grit. the finest and most complete Norman churches in England. At the onset of the Second World War, the need for food production prompted Estates had a major influence: by the 13th century monastic houses and secular the conversion of grassland to arable land, and this was accompanied by a estates controlled both farmland and deer parks, for example at Calke Abbey. loss of hedgerows and field ponds. Dairying, market gardening and woodland The dissolution of the monasteries prompted the enlargement of estates, and management all declined in the post-war period. Remnant orchards associated the proliferation of country houses and parklands reached a peak in the 17th with the tradition of market gardening survive. and 18th centuries. Parkland landscapes make a major contribution to the area, often based on medieval parks and, in some cases, retaining elements of the Today, the fields are largest on the predominantly arable plateau areas, and original boundaries or pales of these earlier parks. more irregular and smaller on the valley sides, where earlier farmsteads are

11 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

concentrated and close to villages. The advent of Environmental Stewardship schemes has encouraged more sympathetic management of hedgerows and grasslands, with specific measures to manage (and in some cases restore) parkland, for example at Calke, Castle Donington, Staunton Harold and Langley Priory – some of which are now English Heritage-registered parks and gardens. An extensive area of arable land around Calke Park has been returned to grassland, to improve biodiversity and to enhance the setting of the parkland. Several farm shops, craft shops and visitor centres have also opened in recent years to diversify farm and estate income.

Some 25 per cent of the NCA is within The National Forest. Tree planting began in 1990 in response to the fragmentation of the existing woodlands, and to the decline in industry and mining in central England. As of October 2012, 8 million trees have been planted over 200 square miles.4 The National Forest has had a positive impact, borne out by the ‘Countryside Quality Counts’5 data for the period 1999 to 2003 that shows that woodland planting has strengthened the landscape character of the NCA.

Significant infrastructure projects have had an impact on the character of the NCA. The M1, Britain’s first official motorway, was opened in 1959, and crosses The spectacularly sited church at Breedon-on-the-Hill overlooks cliffs created by the NCA close to its eastern boundary. Also in the east, East Midlands Airport, quarrying of the Carboniferous Limestone. which opened in 1965, has been developed and expanded since its original use as a Second World War airfield. Road enhancement schemes such as the A42 for mortar, but is now used across the East Midlands as an aggregate for road have also impacted on the character of the NCA. dressing.

Large quarries straddle the southern boundary of the NCA and are a localised feature in an otherwise agricultural landscape. Both Cloud Hill Quarry and 4See www.nationalforest.org/forest for more about The National Forest. Breedon Quarry are important sources of magnesium-rich dolomitic limestone or dolostone. The stone has had many uses, including as a source of lime and 5See www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/landscape/englands/character/cqc/default.aspx

12 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Ecosystem services conservation and recreational value. An outcrop of the Sherwood Sandstone Group, in the east of the NCA, serves as a recharge area for the deep The Melbourne Parklands NCA provides a wide range of benefits to society. Sherwood Sandstone aquifer, the second-most important in the UK. The Each is derived from the attributes and processes (both natural and cultural aquifer is protected by the Environment Agency and is within a protected features) within the area. These benefits are known collectively as ‘ecosystem water area.6 There are also a number of public water supply boreholes services’. The predominant services are summarised below. Further information within the NCA that have source protection zones around them. on ecosystem services provided in the Thames Valley NCA is contained in the ‘Analysis’ section of this document. ■■ Genetic diversity: A number of parklands, some originating from the Middle Ages, still contain managed deer herds with very long genetic continuity: Provisioning services (food, fibre and water supply) they may have adaptive characteristics that could be significant in terms ■■ Food provision: The various soil profiles in the NCA support a range of of resistance to diseases and pests. The remnant orchards associated with food provisioning: for example, less permeable soils are used for dairying market gardening contain some local varieties; Leicester-Burton Pippin and and potatoes, while wheat and barley (and increasingly maize) are the main Dumelow’s Seedling are just two of approximately 100 varieties of apple arable crops grown on the higher-fertility, free-draining soils. The best soils, indigenous to Leicestershire that are not in the National Fruit Collection at the dark loams around Melbourne, support market gardening, and some Brogdale Farm, which is run by the University of Reading in partnership with remnant orchards survive as well. the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

■■ Timber provision: The Melbourne Parklands NCA falls between the ancient ■■ Biomass energy: According to Defra’s biomass potential map,7 there are forests of Needwood and Charnwood, and existing woodland represents opportunities for growing energy crops – provided that they are grown 10 per cent of it. Some 25 per cent of the NCA is within The National Forest. within the wooded landscape and do not have a detrimental visual impact The NCA’s woodland character has been significantly enhanced, with new, on the setting of the country houses and parkland, or any direct physical mixed woodland creation including commercial plantations. Short rotation impact on buried archaeology. coppice is uncommon, although there is potential for it to be sensitively accommodated within the wooded landscape. 6http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?x=357683.0&y=355134.0&sc ■ Water availability: There are two large reservoirs in the NCA, Foremark ale=1&layerGroups=default&ep=map&textonly=off&lang=_e&topic=groundwater#x=435353& ■ y=325433&lg=1,&scale=7 Reservoir and Staunton Harold Reservoir, both of which are important for public water supply to the region. They also provide local ecological, 7http://archive.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/growing/crops/industrial/energy/opportunities/index. htm

13 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Regulating services (water purification, air quality maintenance and climate estate woodlands, and by the associated red-brick estate farmsteads and regulation) villages set within an undulating, tranquil, mixed-farming landscape. ■■ Climate regulation: The soils over most of the NCA have a low carbon content, although there are small pockets of soil with a higher carbon ■■ Sense of history: A strong sense of history is evoked by the imposing and content, associated with areas of woodland and permanent grassland. historically important churches, country houses and designed parklands, New tree plantations, made as part of The National Forest, as well as the notably at Calke and Melbourne, which date from the 17th and 18th effective management of existing woodland, can ensure that the role of the centuries. Melbourne Parish Church is one of the finest and most complete woodland in sequestering and storing carbon is optimised. Norman churches in England, and, like the spectacularly sited church at Breedon-on-the-Hill, is a prominent historic landmark. Areas of remnant ■■ Regulating water quality: Maps from the Environment Agency’s river ridge and furrow survive as a further indication of historic land use that is basin management plan for the area8 indicates that the current ecological still legible in this landscape. status of the main rivers in the NCA is ‘moderate’ and the chemical status is ‘good’. Controlling pollutants and sediments entering feeder watercourses ■■ Recreation: The number of visitors to the NCA is important to the local – resulting from soil and nutrient run-off and livestock directly accessing economy. Recreational opportunities are provided by the woodlands that watercourses – could improve the ecological quality of the water. form part of The National Forest, as well as by historic country houses and their associated landscaped parklands (such as Calke Abbey, which is now ■■ Regulating soil quality: Food provision is an important service in the NCA, owned by the National Trust). Reservoirs at Staunton Harold and Foremark and the quality and versatility of the soil has a direct impact on crop yield. both offer a range of leisure opportunities, with popular visitor centres The slowly permeable clay soils of the NCA can suffer from compaction providing children’s play areas. Public rights of way also provide leisure and/or capping when wet, damaging the soil structure. This leads to nutrient opportunities and National Cycle Route 6 (Derby to Loughborough) passes loss and worsening rates of water infiltration. through the NCA.

■■ Regulating pests: Semi-natural habitats and hedges close to commercial agriculture areas may support predators that can regulate pests that adversely affect food provision.

Cultural services (inspiration, education and wellbeing) 8http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?x=437500.0&y=320500 ■ Sense of place/inspiration: A sense of place is evoked by the large .0&topic=wfd_rivers&ep=map&scale=9&location=Staunton%20Harold%20Hall,%20Leice ■ stershire&lang=_e&layerGroups=default&distance=&textonly=off#x=439273&y=323590& landscaped parklands and grand country houses surrounded by extensive lg=3,7,8,9,&scale=7

14 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

■■ Biodiversity: There are over 533 ha (4 per cent of the total area) of ■■ Geodiversity: Designated Local Geological Sites provide important and Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) priority habitats within the NCA, including accessible sections allowing interpretation and understanding of, and 223 ha of wet woodland and 156 ha of lowland mixed deciduous woodland. research into, the soils and geology of the NCA, aiding our understanding There are 312 ha of land nationally designated as an SSSI. Calke Park of past climates. Of particular interest are the Peak Limestone Group at (designated as both an SSSI and an NNR) is recognised internationally Breedon Quarry, Cloud Hill Quarry and the former Ticknall lime works. Other for wood pasture and parkland. The park has exceptional deadwood quarries are found in the Millstone Grit in the area around Melbourne, and invertebrate fauna, including many that are endangered or nationally scarce. in the Sherwood Sandstone Group at Dimminsdale. Minerals from the Earl It is also important for its fungi, the oak polypore being nationally scarce Ferrers’ Mine at Dimminsdale feature in major collections in both the UK and only occurring on very old oak trees. A good diversity of woodland and other countries, and material from the spoil heaps offers opportunities birds and at least eight species of bat have all been recorded here, including for the study of mineral genesis. The legacy of quarrying contributes to the the serotine bat (this is its only known location in Derbyshire). Elsewhere in character of the NCA and to the local vernacular; the appropriate, small- the NCA, stands of ash and alder occur in the valley bottoms, occasionally scale extraction of stone could provide materials for repairing existing associated with rich, lime-loving ground flora including giant bellflower and buildings and for new development, to maintain the vernacular. hart’s-tongue fern. These give way to stands of birch and English oak on the Millstone Grit, with associated acidic woodland ground flora and extensive areas of unimproved grassland.

Breedon Hill SSSI comprises one of the largest areas of species-rich limestone grassland in Leicestershire, and is representative of such grassland habitats in the Midlands. Carvers Rocks SSSI comprises an area of wet alder, birch and willow carr, and also supports a diverse invertebrate fauna, with several nationally or regionally rare and scarce species. A large number of regionally scarce plants are associated with the wet woodlands. Ticknall Quarries SSSI comprises a range of habitats, including open water, ash woodland and flower-rich calcareous grassland.

15 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Statements of Environmental Opportunity

SEO 1: Manage the new planting of The National Forest and restore the characteristics of the historic parklands and woodlands. Conserve and manage the hedgerows and hedgerow trees, preserving the field patterns of early enclosures and maintaining the legacy of historic land use, bringing benefits for soil quality, biodiversity and recreation.

For example, by: ■■ Ensuring the planting of indigenous tree and shrub species, including ■■ Managing and restoring areas of semi-natural grassland, through a proportion of large, long-lived species, and ensuring that any new suitable land management. plantations follow existing or historic patterns and guidelines set out by ■■ Protecting the settings of historic designed parkland, associated The National Forest. country houses, and estate farmsteads and villages, for the benefits to ■■ Securing a successor generation of veteran trees through the heritage and recreation. identification, protection and recording of candidate specimens. ■■ Bringing remnant orchards into active management to conserve the Conserving and renewing ornamental plantations and individual genetic continuity of fruit species, and seeking opportunities to create parkland trees over a long period of time. new orchards. ■■ Retaining over-mature hedgerow trees for the habitat they provide and ■■ Working with developers to establish hedgerows of native species as planting new saplings to ensure the continuity of mature hedgerow part of commercial and residential development. trees. ■■ Conserve areas of ridge and furrow through suitable land management. ■■ Maintaining species-rich hedgerows, in particular those associated with earlier enclosure, gapping-up where necessary and ensuring any new planting is on historic field boundaries where relevant and where best able to secure benefits to soil erosion and soil quality.

16 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

SEO 2: Promote sustainable agricultural practices to help protect and manage areas of semi-natural habitat and, where appropriate, link these areas together to create a coherent and resilient habitat network.

For example, by: ■■ Encouraging land owners and managers to take up conservation and/ ■■ Working in collaboration with farmers to maintain levels of or Countryside Stewardship schemes that protect existing semi-natural productivity and to maximise the benefits of varied and versatile soils, habitats, and to appropriately manage areas that link together or buffer while investigating and applying management techniques that enhance areas of semi-natural habitats. landscape character and increase biodiversity. ■■ Encouraging sustainable farming practices through management plans, ■■ Working in collaboration with riparian land owners and managers and promoting the suitable management of arable land to deliver to manage watercourses to prevent diffuse pollution entering the habitat for farmland birds. watercourses. ■■ Working in partnership with land owners and managers to investigate opportunities to link together woodland plantations, where appropriate.

17 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

SEO 3: Protect the important water resource in the NCA to safeguard the quality of public, private and agricultural water supplies, and to improve its contribution to biodiversity and recreation.

For example, by: ■■ Encouraging sustainable management techniques to protect the quality ■■ Expanding and restoring wetland habitats, particularly adjacent to of public, private and agricultural water supplies. watercourses, in areas where flooding is a risk. ■■ Protecting watercourses and aquifer recharge areas from pollution, and ■■ Promoting the sustainable use of water and effluent discharge in areas promoting the sustainable use of water. that are important to the commercial, recreational and tourism sectors. ■■ Investigating ways to reduce high nutrient levels entering watercourses, ■■ Sustainably managing streams to enable the development of sediment as this can have a detrimental effect on water quality – benefiting deposition features, in areas where flooding is not a risk. biodiversity and recreation. ■■ Enhancing the landscape character and ecological continuity of river ■■ Ensuring a robust, permanent cover of vegetation, especially trees and corridors through the management, natural regeneration and planting scrub, that can significantly reduce soil erosion and filter water run-off. of riparian vegetation. ■■ Protecting soil quality, and reducing soil erosion and nutrient loss from ■■ Working in collaboration with the Environment Agency to encourage farmland, by managing livestock through best practice methods. For developers to use sustainable urban drainage techniques to control the example, encouraging the use of management plans that address the quality and quantity of water entering watercourses. issues of bank erosion, direct soil deposition into watercourses from livestock directly accessing them, and soil erosion due to mixed and livestock farming practices.

18 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

SEO 4: Protect and enhance the historic landscape character and historic ecclesiastical centres. Promote opportunities for high-quality, accessible green space, and for the interpretation of historical features, increasing opportunities for community engagement, access, recreation and education.

For example, by: ■■ Using an understanding of local architectural traditions and materials, ■■ Integrating the co-ordinated provision of green infrastructure into any in combination with the historic pattern of settlement, to plan for and development, ensuring that local communities have opportunities to inspire new development. enjoy their local green space and to take action to improve it. ■■ Ensuring a supply of local building stone. Recognising the link between ■■ Ensuring that any development plans include areas for landscape the distribution of habitats and species, as well as the importance character and biodiversity enhancement, for example wildlife of former extraction sites, for the sake of heritage, geodiversity and corridors. This will increase the resilience of species to climate change. biodiversity. ■■ Improving access to the rights of way network and National Cycle ■■ Protecting important registered parks and gardens and historic centres, Network through new rights of way that will offer increased for example at Breedon-on-the-Hill and Repton, and their settings. opportunities for recreation near to where people live and work, Seeking to increase opportunities for people to enjoy and deepen their contributing to creating a sustainable transport network. understanding of the natural and historic environment and to take action to improve it. ■■ Master-planning new urban expansions to ensure that accessible, multi-functional green spaces become an integral component, establishing a high-quality environment for the local community. Key views to and from settlements should be retained.

19 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Additional opportunity

1. Protect the strong relationship between the landscape and the underlying geology, the land uses it supports and its significance to the cultural and historic identity of the NCA.

For example, by: ■■ Taking an integrated approach to the natural environment that reflects the strong link between geodiversity and its influence on agriculture, the landscape, industrial development and the settlement pattern of the NCA. ■■ Conserving and managing the suite of SSSIs and Local Wildlife Sites to protect and improve their condition by agreeing management plans with owners and occupiers, and working collaboratively with partners and stakeholders to undertake restorative management of designated sites. ■■ Undertaking restorative management of Local Wildlife Sites, offering opportunities for volunteering and community engagement, and improving access for educational, scientific research and recreational purposes. ■■ Using designated Local Geological Sites, for example at Breedon, Cloud Hill, Dimminsdale and Ticknall Quarries, for the important and accessible sections that they provide to allow interpretation and understanding of, and research into, the soils and geology of the NCA, Remnant acid grassland with heathy scrub persist, with woodland on some steep, aiding our understanding of past climates. sandstone slopes.

20 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Supporting document 1: Key facts and data

Total area: 15,045 ha ■■ Details of individual Sites of Special Scientific Interest can be searched at: http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/sssi/search.cfm 1. Landscape and nature conservation designations ■■ Details of Local Nature Reserves (LNR) can be searched: http://www.lnr.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/lnr/lnr_search.asp There are no National Parks or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in this NCA. Source: Natural England (2011) ■■ Maps showing locations of Statutory sites can be found at: http://magic.defra.gov.uk – select ‘Designations/Land-Based Designations/ 1.1 Designated nature conservation sites Statutory’ The NCA includes the following statutory nature conservation designations: Area Percentage of 1.2 Condition of designated sites Tier Designation Name (ha) NCA A breakdown of SSSI condition as of March 2011 is as follows: International n/a n/a 0 0 Percentage of SSSI in European Special Protection n/a 0 0 SSSI condition category Area (ha) category condition Area (SPA) Unfavourable declining 5 2 Special Area of n/a 0 0 Conservation Favourable 122 39 (SAC) Unfavourable no change 11 3 National National Nature Calke NNR 80 <1 Reserve (NNR) Unfavourable recovering 166 53 National Site of Special A total of 9 sites 312 <1 Source: Natural England (March 2011) Scientific Interest wholly or partly (SSSI) within the NCA Details of SSSI condition can be searched at: Source: Natural England (2011) http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/sssi/reportIndex.cfm Please note: (i) Designated areas may overlap (ii) all figures are cut to Mean High Water Line, designations that span coastal areas/views below this line will not be included.

There are 47 local sites in Melbourne Parklands NCA covering 872 ha which is 6 per cent of the NCA. Source: Natural England (2011)

21 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

2. Landform, geology and soils produce a gently rolling lowland plateau. There are deposits of Millstone Grit around Melbourne and sandstones extending towards the River Trent. The 2.1 Elevation pronounced valleys of the River Trent and the River Soar bound the general rolling Elevation ranges from 25 m above sea level to a maximum of 159 m. The average plateau landscape of the region to the west, north and east. The positions of the elevation of the landscape is 81 m above sea level. rivers are probably controlled by major faults in the underlying bedrock. Source:Natural England (2010) Source: Trent Valley and Rises Natural Area Profile, Melbourne Parklands Countryside Character Area description, Geology Narrative; West Midlands Geodiversity Partnership. 2.2 Landform and process 2.4 Superficial deposits Carboniferous limestones form a broken ridge of hills, and Upper Carboniferous The area is dominated by the Triassic Mercia Mudstones, which give rise to gritstones and mudstones produce pronounced ridges and steep sided, wooded productive, reddish clay soils, partially overlaid by glacial till in the east. There valleys. Sandstones and breccias to the east and west form slopes and heaths. are localised areas of acidic soil that support a diverse flora, for example at Less resistant overlying siltstones and mudstones produce a gently rolling lowland Calke Abbey. As it is located beyond the Late Devensian ice limit, there is little in plateau. The pronounced valleys of the River Trent and the River Soar bound the the way of obvious landscape evidence for past glacial activity. The interfluves general rolling plateau landscape of the region to the west, north and east. The on the plateau are however associated with sporadic and highly-weathered tills positions of the rivers are probably controlled by major faults in the underlying that provide evidence of an older ice advance that was more extensive than the bedrock. The plateau is dissected by steep-sided north flowing river valleys Late Devensian glaciation. While these glacial deposits have not been dated, caused by the rejuvenation of streams down cutting to the lowered base level of they are likely to relate to the Anglian glaciation (c. 450 ka BP). the major Trent Valley, enhanced by processes in a periglacial environment. The Source: Trent Valley and Rises Natural Area Profile, Melbourne Parklands Countryside Character Area description, Geology Narrative; West Midlands Geodiversity Partnership. channel flowing into the Trent Valley at Repton for example displays a relief of up to 80m in its upper reaches. This degree of incision reflects relatively rapid down 2.5 Designated geological sites cutting of these small tributaries through the easily erodible Mercia Mudstones. Source: Trent Valley and Rises Natural Area Profile, Melbourne Parklands Countryside Tier Designation Number Character Area description, Geology Narrative; West Midlands Geodiversity Partnership. National Geological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) 0 2.3 Bedrock geology National Mixed Interest SSSI 3 The geology here is complex. Carboniferous limestones form a broken ridge Local Local Geological Sites 10 of hills, of which Breedon Hill is the most conspicuous. Upper Carboniferous Source: Natural England (2011) gritstones and mudstones produce pronounced ridges and steep sided, wooded valleys. Lower Triassic sandstones and breccias to the east and west form Details of individual Sites of Special Scientific Interest can be searched at: sandstone slopes and heaths. Less resistant overlying siltstones and mudstones http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/sssi/search.cfm

22 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

2.6 Soils and Agricultural Land Classification 3. Key waterbodies and catchments The area is dominated by the Triassic Mercia Mudstones, which give rise to productive, reddish clay soils but are partially overlaid by glacial till in the east. 3.1 Major rivers/canals There are areas of free draining sandy soils that overlie sandstone and localised The following major rivers/canals (by length) have been identified in this NCA. areas of acidic soil that support a diverse flora for example at Calke Abbey. The River Name Length in NCA (km) Millstone Grit around Melbourne weathers to produce a dark loamy soil that supports market gardening; however, the majority of the area is classified as n/a n/a Grade 3 agricultural land. Source: Natural England (2010) Source:Trent Valley and Rises Natural Area Profile, Melbourne Parklands Countryside Please note: other significant rivers (by volume) may also occur. These are not listed where Character Area description, Geology Narrative; West Midlands Geodiversity Partnership, the length within the NCA is short. Natural England (2010). There are no major rivers in the NCA. There are two main reservoirs in the NCA; The main grades of agricultural land in the NCA are broken down as follows (as Foremark Reservoir and Staunton Harold Reservoir. Both are important for water a proportion of total land area): supply as Staunton Harold Reservoir is located between Derby and Burton-upon- Trent. The reservoir was created from one of six naturally occurring ponds in 1964 to Agricultural Land Classification Area (ha) Percentage of NCA provide Leicester and the East Midlands with drinking water. Grade 1 0 0 Foremark Reservoir was built in the 1970s and the reservoir draws water from the Grade 2 4,034 27 River Dove at Eggington, outside the NCA boundary, supplying Melbourne water Grade 3 9,689 64 treatment works. Grade 4 922 6 Grade 5 0 0 In August 2010, water storage levels in the reservoirs were 83 per cent at Foremark Non-agricultural 205 1 and 74 per cent at Staunton Harold Reservoir. Urban 195 1 Source: Natural England (2010) The plateau around Donnington Park and East Midlands Airport is deeply dissected in parts by a series of relatively small but deeply incised river systems that flow from Maps showing locations of sites can be found at: south to north. http://magic.defra.gov.uk – select ‘Landscape’ (shows ALC and 27 types of soils). The channel flowing into the Trent Valley at Repton for example displays a relief of up to 80 m in its upper reaches. This degree of incision reflects relatively rapid down cutting of these small tributaries through the easily erodible Mercia Mudstones.

23 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

3.2 Water quality Forest between Melbourne and Swadlincote planting in large blocks has The total area of Nitrate Vulnerable Zone is 15,045 ha, 100 per cent of NCA. reinforced the current pattern. Between 1999 and 2003, 267 ha were approved Source: Natural England (2010) for planting under a Woodland Grant Scheme agreement. Source: Trent Valley and Rises Natural Area Profile, 3.3 Water Framework Directive Parklands Countryside Character description. Maps are available from the Environment Agency showing current and 4.3 Woodland types projected future status of water bodies A breakdown of the area and type of woodland found across the NCA is http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?ep=maptop detailed below. ics&lang=_e Area and proportion of different woodland types in the NCA (over 2 ha): 4. Trees and woodlands

4.1 Total Woodland Cover Woodland type Area (ha) Percentage of NCA The NCA contains 1,499 ha of woodland (10 per cent of the total area), of which Broadleaved 1,215 8 396 ha or 3 per cent by area of NCA is ancient woodland. Melbourne Parklands Coniferous 188 1 makes up 11 per cent by area of the National Forest. Source: Natural England (2010) and Forestry Commission (2011) Mixed 57 <1 Other 39 <1 4.2 Distribution and size of woodland and trees in the landscape Source: Forestry Commission (2011) Calke Park, with its ancient and veteran trees of international importance is perhaps the best known parkland. Designated as a National Nature Reserve, Area and proportion of ancient woodland and planted ancient woodland sites the wood pasture here contains two oaks aged over 1,000 years, remnants of (PAWS) within the NCA. the ancient wildwood. Collectively the trees and woodlands play an important Woodland type Area (ha) Percentage of NCA role in emphasising estate character. Dense lines of trees along watercourses and locally prominent parkland and amenity trees play a key role in defining Ancient semi-natural woodland 185 1 the scale and enclosure of the intervening spaces. Many estate woodlands are Ancient re-planted woodland (PAWS) 211 1 mixed species plantations managed as game coverts or for commercial timber. Source: Natural England (2004) Part of the NCA lies within the National Forest where extensive woodland and other habitat creation /management activity is underway. Within the National

24 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

5. Boundary features and patterns 6.2 Farm size Farms of area greater than 100 ha are the most common size totalling 9,908 5.1 Boundary features ha, representing 77 per cent of the total agricultural area within the NCA. Hedgerows are generally low and well trimmed where they surround large Farms of area 50 – 100 ha are the second most common size totalling 1,720 ha, arable fields on shallow slopes, and dense with many scattered hedgerow trees approximately 13 per cent of the total agricultural area of the NCA. During the where they enclose permanent pasture or mixed farmland on steep slopes. period 2000 to 2009 trends show an increase to the total agricultural area and Source: Melbourne Parklands Countryside Character Area description; Countryside Quality a corollary increase to the two most common farm sizes. Counts (2003); Geological Narrative; West Midlands Geodiversity Partnership. Source: Agricultural Census, Defra (2010)

5.2 Field patterns 6.3 Farm ownership Predominantly medium size semi-regular and regular fields enclosed by 2009: Total farm area = 12,816 ha; owned land = 6,962 ha hedgerows. Increasingly intensive arable cultivation, especially in the estate 2000: Total farm area = 10,936 ha; owned land = 5,022 ha farmlands, field enlargement and tree loss through Dutch elm disease have created a very open landscape in many areas. During the period 2000 to 2009 trends show an increase to the total farmed Source: Melbourne Parklands Countryside Character Area description; Countryside Quality area and an increase to the owned land. In 2009, 54 per cent of the agricultural Counts (2003); Geological Narrative; West Midlands Geodiversity Partnership. land was farmed by the owner. Source: Agricultural Census, Defra (2010)

6. Agriculture 6.4 Land use The following data has been taken from the Agricultural Census linked to this NCA. During the period 2000 to 2009 cereal producers and grazing increased. The same period saw a small decrease in dairy units and a significant increase in 6.1 Farm type ‘other types’, from less than 5 to 27). Mixed farming with large arable fields on the broader plateau. Grassland often Source: Agricultural Census, Defra (2010) associated with former parks. This is borne out by the following figures on farm 6.5 Livestock numbers type. In 2009, the predominant agricultural sectors were; 58 cereal producers During the period 2000 to 2009 lowland grazing of livestock increased from 19 (representing 37 per cent of the farmed area) and 26 lowland grazing units (37 to 26 units yet despite this increase, the overall number of sheep in the NCA fell per cent of the farmed area) with other mixed arable and combinable crops. by over 8,200 head from 17,800 to 9,600. During the same period the number During the period 2000 to 2009 there was a small increase in the number of of cattle declined from 8,100 to 7,000, while there was a small increase to the cereal producers (46 to 58) respectively. number of pigs from 2,800 to 3,700. Source: Agricultural Census, Defra (2010) Source: Agricultural Census, Defra (2010)

25 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

6.6 Farm labour removed. Biodiversity Action Plans remain a useful source of guidance and Figures for the period 2000 to 2009 show a declining trend in the number of information. More information about Biodiversity 2020 can be found at; principal farmers, full-time and casual gang workers. During the same period www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/biodiversity/ the number of salaried managers and part-time workers increased. protectandmanage/englandsbiodiversitystrategy2011.aspx. Source: Agricultural Census, Defra (2010)

Please note: (i) Some of the Census data are estimated by Defra so may not present a The NCA contains the following areas of mapped priority habitats (as mapped precise assessment of agriculture within this area (ii) Data refers to commercial holdings by National Inventories). Footnotes denote local/expert interpretation. This will only (iii) Data includes land outside of the NCA where it belongs to holdings whose centre be used to inform future national inventory updates. point is recorded as being within the NCA.

7. Key habitats and species Priority habitat Area (ha) Percentage of NCA

7.1 Habitat distribution/coverage Broadleaved mixed & yew woodland 476 3 (broad habitat) There are discrete small areas of acid and calcareous grassland with lowland Coastal and floodplain grazing marsh 301 2 meadows and heath. Woodlands are a dominant habitat in the NCA and are relatively well-linked with large blocks linked to the National Trust’s Calke Fens 14 <1 estate and the nearby Staunton Harold estate. Lowland meadows 12 <1 Source: Melbourne Parklands Countryside Character Area description; Lowland dry acid grassland 11 <1 Geological Narrative; West Midlands Geodiversity Partnership. Reedbeds 9 <1 7.2 Priority habitats Lowland calcareous grassland 8 <1 The Government’s new strategy for biodiversity in England, Biodiversity 2020, replaces the previous Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) led approach. Priority Source: Natural England (2011) habitats and species are identified in Biodiversity 2020, but references to Maps showing locations of priority habitats are available at: BAP priority habitats and species, and previous national targets have been ■■ http://magic.defra.gov.uk – Select ‘Habitats and Species/Habitats’

7.3 Key species and assemblages of species ■■ Maps showing locations of some key species are available at: http://magic.defra.gov.uk – Select ‘Habitats and Species/Habitats’ ■■ Maps showing locations of S41 species are available at http://data.nbn.org.uk/

26 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

8. Settlement and development patterns soils. Repton and Breedon on the Hill were major ecclesiastical centres of the Kingdom of Mercia. Post-Conquest period, Melbourne was an important 8.1 Settlement pattern market and manorial centre and there were monasteries at Calke, Repton and Scattered red brick estate farmsteads and the occasional country house, with Gresley with extensive parks. imposing and dramatically sited churches. Source: Countryside Quality Counts Draft Historic Profile, Source: Melbourne Parklands Countryside Character Area description; Countryside Character Area description Countryside Quality Counts (2003) 9.2 Designated historic assets 8.2 Main settlements This NCA has the following historic designations: Substantial settlements along the edge of the Trent Valley include Repton, ■■ 7 Registered Parks and Gardens covering 616 ha. Melbourne and Castle Donnington. The total estimated population for this NCA ■■ 0 Registered Battlefield/s covering 0 ha. (derived from ONS 2001 census data) is: 46,061. ■■ 14 Scheduled Monuments. Source: Melbourne Parklands Countryside Character Area description; ■■ 537 Listed Buildings. Countryside Quality Counts (2003) Source: Natural England (2010) 8.3 Local vernacular & building materials More information is available at the following address: Brick and sandstone vernacular buildings are a feature of the villages. Timber http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/heritage-at-risk/ framing still survives in a few areas. Churches made from friable sandstone have undergone substantial reconstruction during the 19th and early 20th http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/protection/process/ centuries. Most of the manor houses and country houses are constructed of national-heritage-list-for-england/ imported stone. In Breedon, a small number of farmsteads and drystone walls have been constructed from Carboniferous limestone. Source: Melbourne Parklands Countryside Character Area description; Countryside Quality 10. Recreation and access Counts (2003); Geological Narrative; West Midlands Geodiversity Partnership. 10.1 Public access 9. Key historic sites and features ■■ 3 per cent of the NCA, 484 ha, is classified as being publically accessible. ■■ There are 244 km of public rights of way at a density of 1.6 km per km2. 9.1 Origin of historic features ■■ There are no National Trails with the Melbourne Parklands NCA. Scattered evidence of Mesolithic, later Neolithic and Bronze Age finds in the Sources: Natural England (2010) NCA appear to relate to activity spreading out from the Trent and Tame Valleys. Occupation and clearance of areas throughout the Iron Age and Roman periods is evident. Heathlands had become established over the glacial hill

27 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

The table below shows the breakdown of land which is publically accessible in A breakdown of tranquillity values for this NCA are detailed in the table below: perpetuity: Tranquillity Score Access designation Area (ha) Percentage of NCA Highest Value within NCA 23 National Trust (Accessible all year) 0 0 Lowest Value within NCA -69 Common Land 8 <1 Mean Value within NCA -15 Country Parks 0 0 Sources: CPRE (2006) CROW Access Land (Section 4 and 16) 8 <1 CROW Section 15 0 0 More information is available at the following address: Village Greens 1 <1 http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/countryside/tranquil-places Doorstep Greens 0 0 Forestry Commission Walkers Welcome Grants 80 <1 11.2 Intrusion Local Nature Reserves (LNR) 1 <1 The 2007 Intrusion Map (CPRE) shows the extent to which rural landscapes are Millennium Greens 0 0 ‘intruded on’ from urban development, noise (primarily traffic noise), and other Accessible National Nature Reserves (NNR) 80 <1 sources of visual and auditory intrusion. This shows that the results are similar to Agri-environment Scheme Access 3 <1 the tranquillity scores with the undisturbed areas in the parklands and woodlands. Woods for People 409 3 A breakdown of intrusion values for this NCA are detailed in the table below: Sources: Natural England (2011) Percentage change Please note: Common Land refers to land included in the 1965 commons register; CROW = Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000; OC and RCL = Open Country and Registered Common Land. Intrusion category 1960s (%) 1990s (%) 2007 (%) (1960s-2007) Disturbed 59 79 79 +20 11. Experiential qualities Undisturbed 39 20 16 -23 Urban 1 1 5 +4 11.1 Tranquillity Sources: CPRE (2007) Based on the CPRE map of tranquillity (2006) tranquillity is likely to be asso- ciated with the large parklands and surrounding woodlands, as well as the Notable trends from the 1960s to 2007 are a significant reduction in the area of undisturbed land in the area bounded by the M1 and A42 around Shepshed. unimproved pastures, heathy scrub on steep, undulating sandstone slopes and areas around the reservoirs at Foremark and Staunton Harold and the rural area More information is available at the following address: around Repton. http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/countryside/tranquil-places

28 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

12. Data sources ■■ Detailed River Network, Environment Agency (2008) ■■ Source protection zones, Environment Agency (2005) ■■ British Geological Survey (2006) ■■ Registered Common Land GIS data, Natural England (2004) ■■ Natural Area Profiles, Natural England (published by English Nature 1993-1998 ) ■■ Open Country GIS data, Natural England (2004) ■■ Countryside Character Descriptions, Natural England (regional volumes ■■ Public Rights of Way Density, Defra (2011) published by Countryside Commission/Countryside Agency 1998/1999) ■■ National Trails, Natural England (2006) ■■ Joint Character Area GIS boundaries, Natural England (data created 2001) ■■ National Tranquillity Mapping data, CPRE (2007) ■■ National Parks and AONBs GIS boundaries, Natural England (2006) ■■ Intrusion map data, CPRE (2007) ■■ Heritage Coast Boundaries, Natural England (2006) ■■ Registered Battlefields, English Heritage (2005) ■■ Agricultural Census June Survey, Defra (2000,2009) ■■ Record of Scheduled Monuments, English Heritage (2006) ■■ National Inventory of Woodland & Trees, Forestry Commission (2003) ■■ Registered Parks and Gardens, English Heritage (2006) ■■ Countryside Quality Counts Draft Historic Profiles, English Heritage (2004)* ■■ World Heritage Sites, English Heritage (2006) ■■ Ancient Woodland Inventory, Natural England (2003) ■■ Incorporates Historic Landscape Characterisation and work for preliminary ■■ Priority Habitats GIS data, Natural England (March 2011) Historic Farmstead Character Statements (English Heritage/Countryside ■■ Special Areas of Conservation data, Natural England (data accessed in March 2011) Agency 2006)Detailed River Network, Environment Agency (2008) ■■ Special Protection Areas data, Natural England (data accessed in March 2011) ■■ Ramsar sites data, Natural England (data accessed in March 2011) Please note all figures contained within the report have been rounded to the nearest unit. For this reason proportion figures will not (in all) cases add up to 100%. The convention <1 ■ Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Natural England (data accessed in March 2011) ■ has been used to denote values less than a whole unit.

29

V1.0 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Supporting document 2: Landscape change

Recent changes and trends Agriculture ■■ Many agricultural holdings have increased the extent of land associated Trees and woodlands with arable farming systems. This transition from grassland systems to arable ■■ Woodland is a significant feature in the NCA, with extensive estate mixed cultivation it thought to be most marked around the periphery of the NCA and woodlands and new woodland planting associated with The National upon some of its larger estates. Forest between Melbourne and Swadlincote. Woodland character has been significantly enhanced by The National Forest initiative, 11 per cent of which ■■ An increase in the number of Environmental Stewardship schemes within the falls within the NCA with new planting used to frame views, accentuate last decade has realised improvements to many farmland habitats in addition the rolling landform and strengthen woodland character. Standalone and to reinstating many of the NCA’s landscape features. boundary veteran oaks, wood pasture and parkland are locally very significant and many are over-mature. ■■ The farming community and partner organisations have been central in the design and implementation of restoration plans for many of the NCA’s historic Boundary features parklands. The programme of parkland restoration around Calke Park is one of ■■ Commercial agriculture, accompanied by a shift towards arable production, the largest projects of its kind in the country. has resulted in some loss of traditional hedgerow patterns and some are closely trimmed and gappy hedgerows. Take up of agri-enviornment schemes ■■ A decrease in the amount of land used for pastoral farming, a loss of is beginning to address this issue. hedgerows and an increase in the amount of land used for cereal production have increased the risk of soil erosion on lighter soils in the far west of the area. ■■ Increasing development for commercial purposes, for example around the junction of the M1 and East Midlands Airport has resulted in the loss of some Settlement and development hedgerows. ■■ East Midlands Airport, which opened in 1965, has been developed and expanded since its original use as a Second World War airfield and is now an ■■ Mature and veteran oaks and other species growing within hedges are a important passenger terminal and freight handling depot. Road schemes have special characteristic of the wooded estate lands. Many of these are over- also impacted on the landscape, for example, the opening of the M1 in 1959 in mature, although some boundary trees are being augmented. the east of the NCA. Since then there has been a number of road improvement schemes for example, the A42.

30 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

■■ Settlements such as Castle Donington, Melbourne, Shepshed and Repton, important Sherwood Sandstone aquifer which is exploited by the brewing once small villages, have grown and are now important commuter settlements industry in Burton-upon-Trent in the neighbouring NCA. within easy reach of Derby, Leicester, Nottingham and the airport. Minerals Semi-natural habitat ■■ The Carboniferous Peak Limestone Group is still quarried in the east of the ■■ The NCA contains important Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) habitats and Calke NCA on its southern boundary with Charnwood NCA. The limestone is used Park is recognised for wood pasture and parkland. Semi-natural habitats as aggregate for road dressing, but in the past has been used for lime, mortar are susceptible to shifts towards arable production, invasive non-native and locally as a building stone contributing to the local vernacular. The more species and development pressures. These pressures are a threat particularly friable Sherwood Sandstone has been used to build churches, however many to remnant unimproved pasture, heath and ancient woodland. Restorative buildings in Melbourne are constructed from the more durable Millstone Grit management is underway at some sites, for example Pasture and Asplin sandstones. Historic extraction has left a localised legacy of disused quarries Wood SSSI. However, recreation and access to the reservoirs, woodlands and and distinctive landmarks that now provide valuable wildlife habitats. parklands is increasingly popular with visitors from surrounding urban areas, which is placing increasing pressure on semi-natural habitats and increasing ■■ Historically, lead mining at Earl Ferrers Mine was economically important as the demand for more recreation facilities. were the lime works at Ticknall.

Historic features Drivers of change ■■ There is a significant monastic heritage, many fine churches and an important Viking burial site. The churches are often built from friable sandstone resulting Climate change in an on-going programme of restoration. ■■ Projected climate change trends suggest increased rainfall, periods of drought and more frequent storm events. ■■ The fine landscaped parklands are the traditional draw for many visitors and Environmental Stewardship is playing a role in maintaining and in some cases ■■ The predicted alterations in rainfall pattern, and related issues of erosion and restoring these historic designed landscapes. pollution, are likely to have an impact on the River Dove and its tributaries as a provider of water to Staunton Harold and Foremark reservoirs, impacting Coast and rivers adversely on the water level and associated habitats. ■■ The NCA is an important water storage area with two significant reservoirs. There is a need to prevent deterioration of water quality and protect areas ■■ Over-abstraction from the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer places greater from pollution that provide a pathway for surface water to recharge the importance on areas that provide a potential pathway for surface water to

31 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

recharge the aquifer, also highlighting the importance of those areas that are ■■ The fine landscaped parklands attract many visitors to the area and there is most at risk to pollution of this key natural resource. an opportunity to extend this interest and better interpret the impressive Christian and Viking heritage. ■■ The Environment Agency flood risk map indicates that for much of the NCA flooding is not generally a major issue. However, localised flooding does occur ■■ Changing farming practices can impact on ecological habitats, networks and and could become more frequent and flood damage to vernacular buildings species, as well as landscape character. There are opportunities to work with may increase. land managers to conserve and enhance farmland habitats and the rural character of the landscape through conservation projects and Environmental ■■ A changing climate is likely to cause stress and increase the vulnerability of the Stewardship schemes. ancient oak trees to physical damage, pests and disease. Wood pasture and heathland may become more vulnerable to bracken incursion and fire. ■■ New woodland should continue to increase access opportunities and respect the distinction between the relatively open estate farmlands and the more ■■ More frequent and intense weather events could lead to instability of steep wooded estate. slopes and greater risk of landslides. ■■ Some remnant traditional orchards survive and would benefit from active Other key drivers management and new planting. Opportunities to establish new orchards also ■■ Castle Donington, Melbourne, Shepshed and Repton, have grown and are now exist. Short rotation coppice and other energy crops are uncommon, although important commuter settlements within easy reach of Derby, Leicester, Nottingham could be sensitively planted within the wooded landscape. and the airport. They are likely to remain under development pressure. ■■ The extension of arable reversion at Calke Park and woodland creation ■■ Development pressure around the larger commuter villages and towns offers projects elsewhere should be carefully monitored in order to inform other opportunity to ensure new development is well designed and incorporates potential habitat creation projects in this and other NCAs. green infrastructure. This will bring opportunities to reduce abrupt urban-rural contrast, such as exists around the Winshill and Stapenhill suburbs of Burton- ■■ Supporting the work of The National Forest, Derbyshire County Council, upon-Trent in the adjacent NCA in the west. Leicestershire County Council, North West Leicestershire District Council, the National Trust, Severn Trent Water, the Wildlife Trusts, Forestry Commission ■■ The character of the distinctive villages and estate farmsteads should be and others in the projects they implement will bring opportunities across the carefully managed and protected. Melbourne Parklands, in addition to maximising opportunities to improve the natural environment arising from the partnership of these organisations.

32 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Supporting document 3: Analysis supporting Statements of Environmental Opportunity The following analysis shows the projected impact of Statement of Environmental Opportunity on service provision:

Ecosystem service

Statements of Environmental Opportunity Food provision Timber provision availability Water Genetic diversity Biomass provision Climate Regulation Regulating water quality Regulating water flow Regulating soil quality Regulating soil erosion Pollination Pest regulation Regulating coastal erosion Sense of place / Inspiration Sense of history Tranquillity Recreation Biodiversity Geodiversity SEO 1: Manage the new planting of The National Forest and restore the characteristics of the historic parklands

and woodlands. Conserve and manage the hedgerows N/A and hedgerow trees, preserving the field patterns of early ** ** ** * ** *** ** ** ** ** ** * *** *** *** *** *** ** enclosures and maintaining the legacy of historic land use, bringing benefits for soil quality, biodiversity and recreation. SEO 2: Promote sustainable agricultural practices to help protect and manage areas of semi-natural habitat and, N/A

where appropriate, link these areas together to create a coherent and resilient habitat network. ** * * o * ** ** *** ** *** ** * *** *** *** *** *** ** SEO 3: Protect the important water resource in the NCA to safeguard the quality of public, private and agricultural N/A o water supplies, and to improve its contribution to biodiversity and recreation. * * * * ** ** ** * ** * * ** *** * * *** ** SEO 4: Protect and enhance the historic landscape character and historic ecclesiastical centres. Promote opportunities for N/A

high-quality, accessible green space, and for the interpretation of historical features, increasing opportunities for community ** ** ** o * ** ** * *** * * * * *** * *** *** **

engagement, access, recreation and education.

Note: Arrows shown in the table above indicate anticipated impact on service delivery =Increase ↗ =Slight Increase ↔ =No change ↙ =Slight Decrease ↓ =Decrease. Asterisks denote confidence in projection (*low **medium***high) =symbol denotes where insufficient information on the likely impact is available . Dark plum =National Importance; Mid plum =Regional Importance; Light plum =Local Importance

33 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Landscape attributes

Landscape attribute Justification for selection

An undulating landscape that exemplifies the link ■■ The Carboniferous Peak Limestone Group forms a broken ridge of hills of which, Breedon Hill to the between geology and landform. east, is the most conspicuous. The highly visible and dramatically sited church here overlooks a steeply undulating landscape and localised quarrying. ■■ Less resistant, overlying siltstones and mudstones of the Triassic Mercia Mudstone Group produce a gently rolling lowland plateau. Differential erosion by dynamic river systems has produced a plateau that is deeply incised in places forming narrow valleys. Two valleys have been dammed to create reservoirs at Foremark and Staunton Harold. ■■ Triassic sandstones of the Sherwood Sandstone Group and breccias to the east and west of the NCA form slopes of free-draining sandy soils that support heathland and there are also areas of remnant acid grassland. Elsewhere, neutral grassland can be found in the nutrient-rich valleys. ■■ The dominance of Triassic Mercia Mudstones over the east and extreme west of the NCA, produce productive soils that are slowly permeable and can be prone to seasonal water-logging. ■■ Sandstones in the Millstone Grit around the Melbourne area form a distinctive part of the landscape with a series of ridges and valleys.

34 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Landscape attribute Justification for selection

Extensive estate mixed woodland, new woodland ■■ Woodlands occur on steeper slopes, usually along valley sides, but are particularly evident in association creation, small game coverts roundels and tree with historic parklands at Calke, Melbourne, Staunton Harold and Bretby among others. belts and remnant orchards contribute to an ■■ Collectively the trees and woodlands play an important role in emphasising estate character. Dense lines overall wooded character. of trees along watercourses and locally prominent parkland and amenity trees play a key role in defining the scale and enclosure of the intervening spaces. ■■ The woodlands are relatively well-linked with large blocks linked to the National Trust’s Calke estate and the nearby Staunton Harold estate. ■■ 25 per cent of the NCA lies within The National Forest where extensive woodland and other habitat creation and management activity is underway, furthering the objectives of the strategy for The National Forest. Within The National Forest between Melbourne and Swadlincote, planting in large blocks has reinforced the current pattern.

Mixed farmland including market gardening ■■ Food production is an important service in the NCA. The parkland remains largely pastoral and where the surrounds the areas of parkland and arable soils are heaviest or the slopes are steep, pasture predominates. Much of the pasture has been improved farming dominates the plateau top with grazing and where the soil is free-draining there is some cropping. on the steep-sloping valley sides. ■■ Dairying was historically more prevalent and the Calke estate retains some commercial dairy farms. ■■ Remnant orchards survive associated with the tradition of market gardening.

Hedgerows are generally low and well-trimmed ■■ Field patterns are variable, reflecting the diverse history of enclosure. Within the lower-lying valleys the where they surround large arable fields. There are fields are small to medium size and irregular in shape reflecting the earliest enclosures. Surrounding the many, scattered, sometimes ancient, hedgerow villages, field sizes become smaller and the pattern semi-regular and are characteristic of historic land trees. uses. Hedges in these localities are mixed species comprising holly, hazel, blackthorn and hawthorn. ■■ On the plateau, the field are generally medium to large in size and are rectilinear in shape reflecting a period of later enclosure. The hedgerows are fragmented and predominantly comprise hawthorn. ■■ The expansion of commercial agriculture has resulted in the loss of some field boundaries with many small fields being amalgamated into larger fields.

35 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Landscape attribute Justification for selection

A mosaic of semi-natural habitats ■■ Extensive oak woodland as well as fine ancient trees within parks. ■■ Where pasture prevails, particularly in areas of parkland, extensive areas of unimproved pasture and remnant acid grassland with heathy scrub persist. ■■ Lowland heathland and lowland meadows support a variety of pollinators and nectar sources. ■■ Areas of ridge and furrow are an indication of historic land use. ■■ Remnant orchards would benefit by being brought into management and new orchards created.

A plateau that is deeply incised in places forming ■■ Foremark Reservoir supplies Melbourne water treatment works within the NCA. This and Staunton Harold narrow valleys and having a consistent water Reservoir are supplied with water from the River Dove that rises from the moors near Buxton outside the supply affords the opportunity for the two large NCA and supplies drinking water to more than 800,000 people in Leicester and the east Midlands. reservoirs at Foremark and Staunton Harold. ■■ Both reservoirs offer a range of leisure opportunities with popular visitor centres and children’s play areas. Carvers Rocks, at the southern tip of Foremark, is managed by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and is a scheduled Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its geology and plants. ■■ Minor streams flowing northwards into the River Trent and eastwards into the River Soar have narrow floodplains that are often prominent in the wider landscape as they are fringed by a ribbon of willow and alder. ■■ Triassic sandstones of the Sherwood Sandstone Group in the east and west of the NCA provide a pathway for surface water to recharge the nationally important Sherwood Sandstone aquifer.

36 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Landscape attribute Justification for selection

The small settlements at Repton and Breedon, are ■■ Many of the estates were originally monasteries. Repton and Breedon were major ecclesiastical rich in Christian and Viking heritage. centres of the kingdom of Mercia. Repton was the seat of the Bishop of Mercia in the 8th and 9th centuries and Breedon-on-the-Hill was a Saxon monastery. The Saxon stone carvings in the church are amongst the finest of their type. ■■ Vikings landed and settled at Repton incorporating the abbey into their fortifications. They chose Ingelby, nearby, as their burial site and it is the only known Scandinavian cremation cemetery in England. ■■ The area’s churches provide prominent historic landmarks, for example, the imposing church at Melbourne, which is one of the finest and most complete Norman churches in England and the spectacularly sited church at Breedon-on-the-Hill. Staunton Harold estate church has superb carved woodwork and panelling. The churches have developed a dual role as spiritual centres and historic buildings containing works of art. .

Imposing country houses and associated ■■ There are 7 registered parks and gardens representing 4 per cent of the area of the NCA. landscaped parklands and red brick farmsteads ■■ Two examples are the historic Calke Abbey set in parkland, an NNR and SSSI, which contains many and villages provide a strong sense of place. notable ancient and veteran trees, and Staunton Harold Estate, located in a valley with two lakes and includes the house, church, estate cottages and stables. ■■ Small clustered red brick villages retain a rural character and a historic settlement pattern. ■■ Areas of ridge and furrow, an indication of historic land use.

The extensive reservoirs and their surrounding ■■ Tranquillity maps from 2007 show areas of undisturbed land around the reservoirs at Foremark and areas at Staunton Harold and Foremark contribute Staunton Harold and the rural area around Repton. This is in contrast to a significant reduction in the to the experiential qualities of the NCA. area of undisturbed land in the area bounded by the M1 and A42 around Shepshed. ■■ A strong rural character with an undulating upland feel offering plateau-top views northwards across the Trent Valley Washlands NCA. ■■ Historic designed parkland and associated country house estates provide opportunities for quiet recreation.

37 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Landscape opportunities

■■ Maintain the ancient woodlands, estate mixed woodland, small game ■■ Plan to augment over-mature hedgerow trees over a long period of time, to coverts, roundels, traditional orchards and tree belts to conserve the maintain the overall character of field boundaries. distinctive character of the parklands and to ensure the legacies of historic land use are preserved for future generations. ■■ Maintain and where possible enhance the existing geological exposures by agreeing management plans with owners and occupiers. ■■ The areas of ridge and furrow are an indication of historic land use that is often associated with semi-natural grassland and species-rich hedgerows. ■■ Gap-up and reinstate hedgerows on historic boundaries where possible.

■■ Protect the remaining areas of tranquillity around the reservoirs at Staunton ■■ Plan long-term conservation of rock exposures at key geological sites, by Harold and Foremark. agreeing restoration plans with mineral extraction companies.

■■ Bring areas of ancient woodland, wood pasture and traditional orchards into ■■ Establish new woodland plantations that strengthen the mosaic of management and expand areas of existing woodland. Consider successional interconnecting habitats in The National Forest. planting over a long period of time to maintain the canopy and the wooded character of the NCA.

38 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Ecosystem service analysis Please note that the following analysis is based upon available data and current understanding of ecosystem services. It does not represent a comprehensive local The following section shows the analysis used to determine key Ecosystem assessment. Quality and quantity of data for each service is variable locally and Service opportunities within the area. These opportunities have been many of the services listed are not yet fully researched or understood. Therefore combined with the analysis of landscape opportunities to create Statements of analysis and opportunities may change upon publication of further evidence and Environmental Opportunity. better understanding of the inter-relationship between services at a local level

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Food Varying and Extensive arable production on the broad Regional Food provision is important to the NCA A continued increase to the Food provision provision versatile plateau with small-scale pastures on and the various soil types support a area of land under stewardship soil types heavier soils, steep slopes and around diverse range of crops. Soils derived agreement can further Biodiversity with mixed settlements. from Triassic Mercia mudstones strengthen and improve the farming produce moderately fertile reddish quality of the landscape Regulating soil Statistics from 2009 show that lowland clay soils. The less permeable soils and character and ecological erosion Large open grazing of livestock; 9,589 sheep, 7,032 lush vegetation associated with water richness of the NCA within the arable cattle and 3,738 pigs. courses lend themselves to pasture and farmed environment. Regulating soil fields on quality historically, dairying. Work in collaboration with the broader In 2009, the predominant agricultural The drier soils lend themselves better to farmers to maintain levels of plateau sectors were; cereal producers Sense of place/ potatoes and cereals with wheat, barley productivity and maximise the (representing 37 per cent of the farmed inspiration and maize the main arable crops on benefits of varied and versatile area) and lowland grazing units (37 per better soils. The very best dark loams of soils, while investigating cent of the farmed area) with other mixed Melbourne are used for market gardening. and applying management arable and combinable crops. An increase in the number of techniques that enhance The Calke Estate retains a number of dairy Environmental Stewardship agreements landscape character and farms. has resulted in improvements to increase biodiversity. farmland habitats and a strengthening Work in collaboration of landscape features. Special options with riparian land owners to manage several parklands have been and managers to manage agreed with landowners resulting in one watercourses to prevent diffuse of the largest areas of arable reversion in pollution entering the water the country at Calke Park. courses.

39

(Footnotes)

5 Natural England website, Opportunities and optimum sitings for energy crops, http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/farming/funding/ecs/sit- ings/areas/041.aspx

6 Environment Agency, Humber River Basin Management Plan, December 2009.

7 Environment Agency, River Basin Management Plan, Humber River Basin District, Annex A: Current state of waters, December 2009.

8 Natural England, Capital Grant Scheme - Funding Priority Statement 2010/11, Catchment 6: East Riding of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, date unknown.

9 Environment Agency, The Humber Flood Risk Management Strategy, March 2008

10 Environment Agency, The Humber Flood Risk Management Strategy, March 2008

11 Humber Estuary Coastal Authorities Group, Flamborough Head to Gibraltar Point Shoreline Management Plan Non-Technical Summary, Con- sultation Draft, 2009

12 Environment Agency, Hull and Coastal Streams Catchment Flood Management Plan, draft main stage summary document, June 2008

13 Environment Agency, Grimsby and Ancholme Catchment Flood Management Plan: Summary report, December 2009

14 CPRE intrusion map, 2007 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service

Timber Broadleaf The existing woodland cover (1,499ha) Local Estate influences are evident with many Opportunities exist to manage Timber provision woodland is represents 10 per cent of the area of the of the woodlands being mixed species the existing woodland more provision a dominant NCA. plantations managed for both traditional sustainably for commercial feature of the uses and for commercial timber. purposes, which will also have Recreation landscape In the valley bottoms, there are stands of Sustainable woodland management at a beneficial effect upon other fast growing willow and alder. a small-scale is being trialled at Calke services. Sense of history Fast growing Park where the woodlands are providing willow and Extensive estate mixed woodlands and fuel to a wood-fuel boiler that heats the New commercial plantations Sense of place / alder new woodland planting associated with visitor centre. should continue to respect inspiration The National Forest. The National Forest existing woodland patterns, Soils creates a strong woodland linkage to The National Forest has had a positive the setting of historic houses Regulating soil the neighbouring coalfield NCA and the impact in other areas and this is born and their associated parklands. erosion Charnwood NCA. out in the Countryside Quality Counts New plantations strengthen the data for the period 1999-2003 when landscape character by linking woodland planting strengthened the together areas of woodland. landscape character. Work in collaboration with the Forestry Commission to further the objectives contained within the Strategy for The National Forest.9

New plantation woodlands can provide shelter belts which could reduce incidences of soil erosion.

9The Strategy: The National Forest 2004 – 2014, The National Forest (2004)

40 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service

Water Two extensive There are no main rivers in the NCA Regional Erosion by rivers has produced a Opportunities exist for careful Water availability reservoirs however; there are two extensive plateau that is deeply incised in management of water to avoid availability reservoirs, Foremark and Staunton Harold places forming narrow valleys. over-abstraction, through efficient Small aquifer Reservoirs, both important for water Two valleys have been dammed to use of water and seeking more Food provision supply as well as for their ecological, create reservoirs at Foremark and sustainable sources of water Soils conservation and recreational value. Staunton Harold. Both are important supply where possible. Regulating for water supply. Staunton Harold soil quality Sandstones of the Sherwood Sandstone was constructed around one of six Seek opportunities to increase Group outcrop in the NCA provide an naturally occurring ponds. Foremark areas of semi-natural habitats, Regulating soil important pathway for surface water to reservoir draws water from outside especially grassland, to improve erosion recharge the Sherwood aquifer. the NCA from the River Dove and water infiltration. supplies Melbourne water treatment Biodiversity works. In August 2010 water storage Work in collaboration with farmers Recreation levels were 83 per cent at Foremark to seek ways of increasing rates of and 74 per cent at Staunton Harold. infiltration on the arable plateau and reducing chemical inputs especially in aquifer recharge areas.

Seek to minimise incidences of compaction on clay soils, which can arise from over-grazing, trafficking or other mechanised activities. This leads to nutrient loss and worsening rates of water infiltration, a particular problem in the aquifer recharge areas.

Work in collaboration with riparian land owners and managers to manage watercourses to prevent diffuse pollution entering the water courses and allow water table levels to rise where appropriate.

41 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service

Genetic Deer herds Donington Park still contains a managed Local Deer parks have a long association with Adaptive characteristics may Genetic diversity deer herd with a very long genetic parkland landscapes and are often exist in the deer herd that diversity Traditional continuity. based on earlier deer parks and in could be significant in pest and orchards some cases retaining elements of the disease resistance and should be Biodiversity There is a long association with market boundaries of the medieval pale. considered an asset to the NCA. gardening in the area and associated Changes in land use and a lack of Sense of history remnant orchards survive today containing management of orchards have resulted Adaptive characteristics may exist local and traditional varieties such as the in many being lost. The National in local varieties of apples that Sense of place / Newton Wonder. Forest has objectives to establish new could be significant in pest and inspiration orchards and manage remnant ones, disease resistance and should be which may help to preserve the genetic considered an asset to the NCA. Food provision characteristics contained within them.

Biomass Existing The existing woodland cover (1,499ha) Local Sustainable woodland management at a Opportunities exist to identify Biomass energy energy woodland represents 10 per cent of the area of the small scale is being trialled at Calke Park other sites where wood/biomass NCA. where the woodlands are providing boilers could be installed. Biodiversity Soils fuel to a wood-fuel boiler that heats the Opportunities exist for planting short visitor centre. rotation coppice and miscanthus Climate An undulating landform, well-treed on lowland slopes. This would also regulation character and sense of enclosure could benefit the regulation of water flow, provide opportunities for miscanthus by reducing rates of run-off. Regulating water flow and short rotation coppice provided There could be a potential benefit that the integrity of archaeological to the sense of place and history in remains, historic parklands and estates Regulating soil growing miscanthus thus restoring erosion and viewpoints are not compromised. historic enclosures and would provide a more intricate landscape Sense of place / in the most intensive arable areas. inspiration Plantations could also extend woodland edges. Timber Plantations should respect existing provision woodland patterns, the setting of historic houses and their associated parklands.

42 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Climate High carbon The soils over most of the NCA have Local The majority of the soils in the NCA offer 11 per cent of The National Forest Climate regulation content soils a low carbon content (0-5 per cent) limited potential to improve climate is within the NCA. Local targets regulation although there are small pockets of soil regulation. Woodland is likely to be the within the Landscape Action Woodland with a higher carbon content (5-10 per most significant contributor in this NCA. Plan for The National Forest Biodiversity cent) associated with areas of certain could optimise the management Permanent woodlands and permanent grasslands. Good management of existing woodland of existing woodland and Regulating grassland can ensure its role in sequestering and identify areas for planting while water flow storing carbon is optimised. The expansion maintaining the existing planting of woodland on suitable sites could patterns thus strengthening Sense of increase carbon sequestration and storage. the character of the NCA and history This expansion could also benefit other identifying key locations for long- services. term carbon storage in woodland Regulating soils. soil quality

Biodiversity, regulation of water flow through interception and sense of history could all benefit from the expansion of woodland. However, new plantations on agricultural land may limit increases in food production.

Opportunities exist around management and creation of permanent grassland, particularly in river valleys and the fringes of reservoirs. The creation of reedbeds which are a potentially good carbon store.

43 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Regulating Reservoirs There are no priority catchments under Regional Staunton Harold Reservoir was created from There exists an opportunity to Regulating water the Catchment Sensitive Farming initiative one of six naturally occurring ponds in 1964 encourage riparian landowners to water quality quality Sherwood in the NCA. The ground water chemical to provide Leicester and the East Midlands take steps to reduce soil erosion Sandstone status is generally good in the eastern with drinking water. Controlling pollutants and nutrient loss from farmland Regulating aquifer area of the NCA and poor in the west. The and sediments entering feeder watercourses through best practice and soil erosion current ecological status of Foremark as a result of soil and nutrient run-off and management plans. Soils and Staunton Harold Reservoirs is livestock directly accessing water courses, Regulating moderate10. The surface water chemical could improve the ecological quality of the Encourage arable reversion and soil quality Semi-natural status currently does not require water. the establishment of permanent grassland assessment in either reservoir11. Data from grassland, especially alongside Food the Environment Agency’s River Basin A widespread decline in dairying may have water courses, with low input provision Management Plan12 indicates that the locally improved water quality by reducing management, to reduce nutrient current ecological status of the main rivers the incidences of manures, slurry and silage run-off and increase water Biodiversity in the NCA is ‘moderate’ and the chemical effluent reaching the water courses. infiltration. status is ‘good’. Foremark Reservoir was created in the 1970s The whole of the Sherwood Sandstone and is fed by the River Dove, which lies aquifer is currently over-licensed for outside the NCA and supplies Melbourne abstraction. water treatment plant.

Replenishment of the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer is desirable. Areas underlain by Triassic sandstone provide a potential pathway for surface water to recharge the aquifer.

The correct management of clay soils can play an important part in regulating water flow.

10Environment Agency Data information from: http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?extraClause=NAME~’Foremark%20Reservoir’

11Environment Agency Data information from: http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?extraClause=NAME~’Foremark%20Reservoir’

12http://maps.environment-agency.gov.uk/wiyby/wiybyController?x=437500.0&y=320500.0&topic=wfd_rivers&ep=map&scale=9&location=Staunton%20Harold%20Hall,%20Leicestershire&l ang=_e&layerGroups=default&distance=&textonly=off#x=439273&y=323590&lg=3,7,8,9,&scale=7

44 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Regulating Wooded There are no main rivers in the NCA Local The Environment Agency’s Flood Risk There exists opportunities for Regulating water flow river valleys although there are tributaries of the rivers Assessment indicates that for much of the flood risk management for water flow Dove and Trent. NCA flooding is not generally a major issue, example the identification Vegetated although there are some relatively small of locations where flood Regulating steep slopes areas of ‘significant’ flood risk associated attenuation ponds or wetland water quality with tributaries and the floodplain areas could be created with Clay soils associated with the River Trent that skirts associated habitat improvement Biodiversity the northern boundary of the NCA. and the identification of potential sites for priority habitat Water The correct management of clay soils can creation13. availability play an important part in regulating water flow. It is important to minimise incidences of compaction on clay soils, which can arise from over-grazing, trafficking or other mechanised activities. This leads to nutrient loss and worsening rates of water infiltration, a particular problem in the aquifer recharge areas.

There is an opportunity to increase vegetation cover and extend areas of floodplain habitats such as flood meadows, wet woodland and reed beds. These could be considered to attenuate the flow downstream and increase rates of infiltration particularly in the aquifer recharge areas.

13The River Trent Catchment Flood Management Plan Summary Document, Environment Agency (2010)

45 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Regulating Slowly The slowly permeable clay soils can suffer Local It is important to minimise incidences There exists opportunities Regulating soil quality permeable from compaction and/or capping when of compaction on clay soils, which can to implement management soil quality clay soils wet, damaging the soil structure. arise from over-grazing, trafficking or techniques, for example minimal other mechanised activities. This leads to tillage. Regulating Lighter nutrient loss and worsening rates of water water flow soils on infiltration, a particular problem in the Increasing the percentage the central aquifer recharge areas. of organic matter in the soil Food plateau improves the soil structure and production Minimising incidences of flooding through can lead to reduced incidence of Higher regulation of water flow in water courses soil compaction. Biodiversity quality soils can have multiple benefits; reducing around soil erosion maintaining soil structure Opportunities relating to the Melbourne and reducing the amount of leaching of regulation of water quality and nutrients. water flow also have a beneficial effect on soil quality and food production.

46 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Regulating Reddish clay Soil erosion has not been identified as an Local A decrease in the amount of land used for There exists opportunities Regulating soil erosion soils over the issue for the majority of the NCA, although pastoral farming, an increase in the amount to implement management soil erosion majority of there is a risk of soil erosion on lighter soils of land used for cereal production and loss techniques, for example the NCA in the far west of the area. of some hedgerows has increased the risk minimal tillage, that reduce soil Regulating of soil erosion on lighter soils in the far west erosion and nutrient loss from soil quality Wooded of the area. farmland and improve livestock valleys management through best Regulating Stability of soils under permanent pasture practice and management plans. water quality Uncultivated and woodland particularly on steeper sided areas on valley slopes. The expansion of permanent Regulating steep valley grassland and semi-natural water flow slopes Minimising incidences of flooding through habitats on steep valley slopes regulation of water flow in water courses can help to reduce soil loss, Biodiversity Cross field can have multiple benefits; reducing regulate surface water run-off hedgerows soil erosion maintaining soil structure and increase the rate of water Climate and reducing the amount of leaching of infiltration. regulation nutrients. Opportunities exist for the Food reinstatement of cross field production hedgerows to reduce incidences of wind-blown soil erosion. Pollination Lowland Some habitats in the NCA, such as lowland local Pollination is not currently a service An expansion to this service may Pollination heathlands heathlands, remnant orchards in the required by the predominant agricultural facilitate the growing of a greater north of the area and lowland meadows, crop. However, an increase to this service diversity of crops in the future Biodiversity Lowland support a variety of pollinators and nectar could deliver multiple benefits. thus improving resilience to food meadows sources. supply. An increase to this service Food is likely to improve biodiversity. provision Remnant orchards

47 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Pest Areas of Areas of semi-natural grassland and Local Semi-natural habitats and hedges proximal Opportunities exist to enhance Pest regulation semi-natural hedgerows proximal to areas of to areas of commercial agriculture may semi-natural habitats and re- regulation habitat agricultural production. support species of predators, which can instate hedgerows through regulate populations of pests that adversely Countryside Stewardship. This Food Hedgerows affect food and timber provision. would provide a mosaic of provision habitats in areas of monoculture, thus providing a more robust Timber ecosystem. provision

Biodiversity

48 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Sense of Historic Sense of place is invoked by the large Regional 11 per cent of the NCA lies within The Landscape action plans for Sense of place/ parklands landscaped parklands and grand country National Forest. Collectively the trees the proportion of the NCA that place/ inspiration and country houses surrounded by extensive estate and woodlands play an important role in lies within The National Forest inspiration houses woodlands and the associated red brick emphasising estate character. Dense lines identify: woodland planting in Recreation The National estate farmsteads and villages set within of trees along watercourses and locally large blocks to reinforce the Forest an undulating, tranquil, mixed farming prominent parkland and amenity trees landscape character; increasing landscape. play a key role in defining the scale and the extent of lowland acid Sense of Extensive enclosure of the intervening spaces. grassland; neutral grassland and history estate mixed This is supported by the undulating heath grassland for the benefits woodlands landform dissected by narrow river The woodlands are relatively well-linked this will bring to landscape Regulating water quality Undulating valleys, prominent in the wider landscape with large blocks linked to the National character and other provisioning landform as they are fringed by a ribbon of willow Trust’s Calke estate and the nearby services. and alder, with small woods sited on ridge Staunton Harold estate. Regulating Many tops. Planting and restoring hedgerows water flow valleys with Both reservoirs offer a range of leisure strengthens the landscape riverside The large reservoirs at Foremark and opportunities with popular visitor centres character but also benefits soil meadows Staunton Harold and the imposing and and children’s play areas. erosion and soil quality. Estate dramatically-sited churches, for example farmlands at Melbourne and at Breedon-on-the-Hill, The churches have developed a dual Habitat creation on riparian land on the where the church overlooks cliffs created role as spiritual centres and historic can also benefit the regulation of plateau by quarrying. buildings containing works of art. They water quality and water flow. also contribute to the wider landscape as Red brick landmarks, most notably the Priory church Opportunities exist throughout villages of St Mary and St Hardulph, Breedon-on- the NCA to compliment these Reservoirs the-Hill. plans through appropriate Sandstone Countryside Stewardship slopes and agreements and initiatives heaths associated with the Water Framework Directive that will Prominent benefit biodiversity. and imposing churches

49 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Sense of Ecclesiastical A sense of history is invoked by the area’s Regional The NCA has a strong Christian heritage with Opportunities exist to protect, Sense of history centres imposing and historically-important many of the estates and grand houses for manage and interpret the history country houses and designed parklands. example, Calke and Melbourne, which date many historic assets as stated Historic There are s7registered parks and gardens from the 17th and 18th centuries, originally in the Leicestershire, and Sense of country representing 4 per cent of the area. being monasteries. Repton and Breedon-on- Rutland Historic Landscape place/ houses the-Hill were major ecclesiastical centres of Characterisation Programme. inspiration Designed There are 14 Scheduled Monuments and the kingdom of Mercia. parklands 537 listed buildings. Restoration of hedgerows, arable Recreation Repton was the seat of the Bishop of Mercia reversion; expansion to, and Prominent Prominently sited churches as well as the and the 8th and 9th century Anglo-Saxon maintenance of, woodland could and imposing traditional built vernacular. stone carvings at Breedon church are amongst restore enclosure patterns and churches the finest of their type. historic land uses, reinforcing the Many of the historically important sites sense of history of the NCA. Viking sites visible today overlay earlier settlements. During the second half of the 9th century, Vikings landed at Repton and incorporated Opportunities exist to ensure that Anglo-Saxon the abbey into their fortifications. They chose restoration of historic buildings settlement Ingelby, nearby, as their burial site and it is and new developments use local pattern the only known Scandinavian cremation building stone to maintain the cemetery in England. vernacular and reflect the historic Areas of ridge patterns of settlement. and furrow Prominently sited churches for example at Breedon and fine examples of Norman architecture such as Melbourne Church, which is one of the most imposing and most complete Norman churches in England.

The principal material of the older buildings in the villages is brick with pan tile roofs although timber framing still exists in a few places. Churches have been constructed from friable sandstone and have been restored in 19th century restorations.

Continued over...

50 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Sense of ...Continued from previous history continued Some field patterns reflect early enclosures and there are areas of surviving ridge and furrow indicative of historic land use. Soil is also important in protecting buried archaeological features.

Many of the buildings are at risk from erosion and the settlement patterns of villages could be threatened by inappropriate development. Below ground archaeology and areas of ridge and furrow could be at risk if there is an expansion to commercial agriculture.

Tranquillity Historic Just 16 per cent of the NCA is classified Local Tranquillity is associated with the large Opportunities exist to retain the Tranquillity parkland as undisturbed according to CPRE data1, parklands and surrounding woodlands, areas of tranquillity by protecting estates and a decline from around 40 per cent in the as well as the unimproved pastures them from inappropriate Sense of woodlands 1960s. and heathy scrub on steep, undulating development and by buffering place/ sandstone slopes and the areas around developments by tree planting. inspiration Reservoirs the reservoirs at Foremark and Stuanton Harold. Secluded valleys This disturbance largely relates to the high traffic volumes on the main roads that cross this small NCA including the A42, M1 and East Midlands Airport. Nevertheless this is largely a quiet, rural area.

51 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Service Assets/ State Main Analysis Opportunities Principal attributes: beneficiary services main offered by contributors opportunities to service Recreation Woodlands Recreational opportunities are provided Regional The number of visitors to the NCA is There is an ongoing initiative in The Recreation including by the woodlands that form part of The important to the local economy. Visitor National Forest to create a large- The National National Forest. numbers to the National Trust estate at scale forest that blends commercial Sense of Forest Calke Abbey in 2010 were approximately forestry and non-commercial place/ Staunton Harold and Foremark reservoirs 250,000. The visitor centres at Staunton woodland creation with ecological, inspiration Reservoirs are popular with visitors seeking a range Harold and Foremark are important for landscape and public access of outdoor recreation pursuits such as environmental education provision. benefits, as well as maintaining the Sense of Secluded sailing, fishing, walking, pony-trekking and historic parkland landscapes. history valleys cycling. Both have popular visitor centres Incorporation of green infrastructure into and children’s play areas. new developments can provide multiple Green Infrastructure offers the A network of benefits to other services. local community opportunities to rights of way Calke Abbey Estate including Calke Park enjoy their local greenspace and to SSSI and National Nature Reserve. National Cycle Network route 6 passes take action to improve it as well as Green approximately north to south through the provide benefits to urban drainage infrastructure 244 km of rights of way (at a density of NCA linking Derby to Loughborough. and biodiversity. 1.62 km per km2), and around 8 ha of open Historic access land (covering 0.05 per cent of the Opportunities exist to promote parkland NCA). the recreational and educational estates opportunities afforded by the National Cycle Network route 6 passes network of rights of way and National through the NCA. improved access to the open Cycle countryside from towns, which Network could have a beneficial effect on people’s health and well-being.

Opportunities exist to expand the local cycle network to link with the National Cycle Network route 6. This would provide more accessible opportunities for physical exercise and contribute to solutions to sustainable transport.

52 National Character 70. Melbourne Parklands Area profile: Supporting documents

Photo credits Front cover: Calke Abbey, a Grade II* listed historic park and garden, one of the many grand country houses in Melbourne Parklands NCA © A Ratcliffe/Natural England Pages 5, 6, 7 (left), 8, 9 (right hand images) © M Banham/Natural England Page: 4 and 10 © A Ratcliffe/Natural England Page 7 (Right) and 20: © Derbyshire CC. Page 9 (left): © Tim Heaton Page 12: © Thomas Nugent

Natural England is here to secure a healthy natural environment for people to enjoy, where wildlife is protected and England’s traditional landscapes are safeguarded for future generations. Catalogue Code: NE384 ISBN: 978-1-78367-172-4

Natural England publications are available as accessible pdfs from www.gov.uk/natural-england. Should an alternative format of this publication be required, please contact our enquiries line for more information: 0845 600 3078 or email [email protected] www.gov.uk/natural-england

This publication is published by Natural England under the Open Government Licence v3.0 for public sector information. You are encouraged to use, and reuse, information subject to certain conditions. For details of the licence visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 Please note: Natural England photographs are only available for non-commercial purposes. For information regarding the use of maps or data visit www.gov.uk/how-to-access-natural-englands-maps-and-data. © Natural England 2015

53